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The Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour
in Company and Conversation
by
George Washington
These maxims originated in the late sixteenth century in France and were popularly circulated during Washington's time. Washington wrote out a copy of the 110 Rules in his school book when he was about sixteen-years old.
This exercise, now regarded as a formative influence in the development of his character, included guidelines for behavior in pleasant company, appropriate actions in formal situations, and general courtesies, such as: "Superfluous Complements and all Affectation of Ceremonie are to be avoided, yet where due they are not to be Neglected"; "Think before you Speak"; and "Rince not your Mouth in the Presence of Others".
Charles Moore's Origin of the Rules of Civility
Among the hundreds of volumes of Washington Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, two contain the school exercises of George Washington, written before he had reached the age of sixteen years. The one devoted to mathematics exhibits a wide range of subjects, combined with sureness and accuracy in working, and clearness and neatness of presentation. Few graduates of colleges to-day, unless they specialize in mathematics, become so well trained in that subject. The problems in surveying show that at sixteen Washington was fitted to earn his living in the field.
The second book begins with legal forms, such as every planter should know: bills of sale and exchange, contracts, conveyances, deeds, leases, and even wills. The middle portion contains a Christmas poem, and also one entitled "True Happiness," which strongly suggest that the boyish love poems attributed to his pen were taken from some book, now unknown. Probably they expressed his feelings at the moment, and he copied them.
The remaining ten pages of the second book are occupied by one hundred and ten "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation," about which much has been written and little is known. These maxims were so fully exemplified in George Washington's life that biographers have regarded them as formative influences in the development of his character.
During the days before mere hero worship had given place to understanding and comprehension of the fineness of Washington's character, of his powerful influence among men, and of the epoch-making nature of the issues he so largely shaped, it was assumed that Washington himself composed the maxims, or at least that he compiled them. It is a satisfaction to find that his consideration for others, his respect for and deference to those deserving such treatment, his care of his own body and tongue, and even his reverence for his Maker, all were early inculcated in him by precepts which were the common practice in decent society the world over. These very maxims had been in use in France for a century and a half, and in England for a century, before they were set as a task for the schoolboy Washington.
That romantic and stimulating scholar, the late Moncure D. Conway, was born in Falmouth, Virginia. The Falls of the Rappahannock made music to his boyish ears, as they had sung to the young Washington. Mr. Conway's knowledge of times and places and people in Colonial Virginia stimulated his zeal for research and gave food for his vivid imagination. He was the first to trace the origin of the Maxims to a treatise entitled "Bienseance de la Conversation entre les Hommes," prepared, in 1595, by the "pensionnaires" of the French Jesuit College of La Fleche, and sent by them to their brothers at Pont-a-Mousson.
One of the recipients, Father Perin, translated the Maxims into Latin, adding a chapter of his own on behavior at table. The Latin edition appeared at Pont-a-Mousson in 1617, at Paris in 1638, at Rouen in 1651. It was translated into Spanish, German, and Bohemian. A French edition appeared at Paris at least as early as 1640. [Author's note: George Washington's Rules of Civility Traced to their Sources and Restored, by Moncure D. Conway; 1891. See also Backer's Jesuit Bibliography).]
Just as he had completed his comparisons with the French work, Mr. Conway found in the British Museum an English version of the Maxims, "purporting to be by a child in his eighth year," first printed in London in 1640. "The translations are indeed rude," he writes, "and sometimes inaccurate as to the sense, but that they were the unaided work of a child under eight is one of the "things hard to be believed" which a Maxim admonishes us not to tell." Mr. Conway's conclusion is that "A careful comparison of Washington's Rules with the Hawkins version renders it doubtful whether the Virginia boy used the work of the London boy. The differences are more than the resemblances."
Yet admittedly Washington knew no French. As easily as the young Washington himself threw a stone across the Rappahannock, Mr. Conway overcomes this difficulty by having the Maxims translated from the French and made into copy-book form by the Reverend James Marye, who was born within the pale of the Catholic Church, at Rouen, but who came to Virginia with the first Huguenot Colony and was the minister of St. George's Parish, Spotsylvania County, from 1735 till his death in 1767. His home was at Fayetteville, eight miles from Fredericksburg. There he lived and was buried. [Author's note: Documents, chiefly unpublished, relating to the Huguenot emigration to Virginia. Edited and compiled by Robert Alonzo Brock. Richmond, 1886. History of St. George's Parish in the County of Spotsylvania, by Rev. Philip Slaughter, D.D. Edited by R. A. Brock. Richmond, 1890.] The fact that James Marye was born in France and was educated as a Jesuit makes plausible the theory that he had knowledge of a work on manners known throughout the civilized world. He might have been Washington's teacher; but there is no proof that he taught in Fredericksburg or elsewhere, or even that there was a school in Fredericksburg in his day, then little more than a name. Indeed we are by no means certain that George Washington went to school. His father, Augustine Washington, died in 1743, when the boy was eleven years old, and thereafter, until he was sixteen, he lived with his half-brother, Augustine, on the ancestral acres in Westmoreland County, forty miles from Fredericksburg. He was often at his mother's home, at Ferry Farm, across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg; but we are not certain who his teachers were or whether he was taught outside his own home.
A comparison of texts furnishes proof positive that the Maxims copied by George Washington came from the Hawkins version, and not from the French. The doubts thrown on the Hawkins work because of the author's youth are unfounded.
Francis Hawkins was born in London in 1628. His father, John Hawkins, M.D. (Padua), was a brother of Sir Thomas Hawkins and of Henry Hawkins, all members of an old, active and influential family. Dr. John Hawkins had pub fished five books before his precocious son Francis, at the age of eight years, turned into English the French version of the Maxims. The pleased father took the manuscript to the printer, William Lee, who published it about 1640. The troubled state of the country kept the book from being reprinted until 1646, when a second edition appeared. Then followed in quick succession nine other editions before 1672.
A second part, entitled "Youth's behaviour, or Decency in Conversation amongst Women": with a portrait of Lady Ferrers, was added by the Puritan bookmaker, Robert Codrington, in 1664. This shows that Puritans as well as Cavaliers, Protestants as well as Romanists, regarded Hawkins's Maxims as stepping-stones to favor. Indeed, so thoroughly was Hawkins's English version accepted that Hawkins is regarded as the author of the book, and mention of the French authorship does not go beyond the expression on the title-page: "composed in French by grave persons for the use and benefit of their youth."
Meanwhile Hawkins, at the age of twenty-one, entered the Society of Jesus. In 1662 he was professed of four vows; ten years later he was confessor at Ghent, and from 1675 till his death in 1680-81 he was professor of Holy Scripture at Liege College. [Dictionary of National Biography.]
The open questions are: who condensed, and arranged as exercises in writing, the Hawkins Maxims; and, second, who taught George Washington penmanship by the use of them ?
In any event, and whoever the teacher, it was the Hawkins English version and not the French version that was the source of the rules Washington copied. Is it not probable that the Hawkins book was one of those compilations that "no gentleman's library could be without," notwithstanding the fact that no such title appears in the catalogue of the library of William Byrd of Westover, reputed to have been the finest in the Colonies? Is it not possible that either Washington's father or one of his half-brothers, all three of whom were educated in England, brought back a copy of one of the Hawkins editions?
One copy of the edition of 1663 has survived in the Library of Congress. The New York, Harvard, and Richmond Libraries report no copies. But the British Museum has the editions of 1646, 1651, 1663, and 1672; and also a Latin translation of the same work, London, MDCLII. The Bodleian Library, Oxford, has the seventh impression, 1661; eighth impression, I 663; ninth impression, I 668; and eleventh impression, 1672. Trinity College Library, Cambridge, England, has at least two editions-1663 and 1672. Dr. James H. Penniman of Philadelphia owns a copy of the edition of 1651,--the only copy of any edition I have found in this country, except the one in the Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress copy has been used as the basis of the comparisons herein made between the Washington and Hawkins texts. With its aid the Washington Rules have been restored, in cases of mutilation, with an accuracy more complete than the conjectural restorations of Dr. Toner [Author's note: Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation. Copied from the original . . . and edited with notes, by J. M. Toner, M.D. Washington, D.C., 1888.] and of Mr. Conway. Of the one hundred and ten Rules in the Washington manuscript, not all are in the French version. Among them are a number that were added by English writers in the later editions of the Hawkins book. All the Rules are in the 1663 edition.
The hiatus of three quarters of a century between the latest known edition of Hawkins and the date which Washington himself placed upon his manuscript of the Rules is still unclosed. The Rules are not found in The Young Man's Companion, by W. Mather, a copy of which school-book, with the name of George Washington and the date 1742 plainly written on the title-page, has been on the market. It is not established that the writing is his or that he owned the book, although it is contemporary with him. Nor have the Rules yet been discovered in any other like publication from 1672 till this day.
Professor E. K. Rand, of Harvard University, has called my attention to Dr. F. J. Furnivall's collections of texts on Early English Meals and Manners and Queene Elizabethes Academy; and to the modernization of these texts by Edith Rickert, under the title of The Babees' Book: Medieval Manners for the Young (1908). Many rules naturally are similar to those to be found in both the French and the English versions, but identity is lacking. Moreover, although mention is made of compilations so late as Richard Weste's School of Virtue, printed in 1619, no mention is made of Perin's work, or of Hawkins'.
Here, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter as it now stands: The Rules of Civility were composed originally, or compiled, and published in France, by the Jesuits, about 1595; they were translated into English by Francis Hawkins about 1640, and passed through no fewer than eleven editions down to 1672. From the Hawkins book the one hundred and ten Rules written by Washington were selected, simplified and arranged by some person at present unknown. One copy came into the hands of George Washington, who from it wrote out the manuscript that is among the Washington Papers purchased: from the family by Congress in 1834 and 1849, and held in the Department of State until 1903, when they were transferred to the Library of Congress.
I am indebted to Mr. R. F. Sharp, Keeper of the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum; to Mr. S. Gibson, Secretary of the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and to Mr. H. M. Adams, Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, for painstaking investigation in their several institutions, and for their prompt and courteous replies to inquiries.
Miss Emily B. Mitchell, long connected with the Division of Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, has prepared the manuscript of this work, and has aided in the research involved. Mr. Levin C. Handy has photographed the Washington Rules in such manner as to bring out the very best that in them is.
Charles Moore
Washington, D.C. May, 1926.
From George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation.
The Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour
in Company and Conversation
by
George Washington
Original
1 Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.
2 When in company, put not your hands to any part of the body not usually discovered.
3 Show nothing to your friend that may affright him.
4 In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming voice, or drum with your fingers or feet.
5 If you cough, sneeze, sigh, or yawn, do it not loud but privately, and speak not in your yawning, but put your handkerchief or hand before your face and turn aside.
6 Sleep not when others speak; sit not when others stand; speak not when you should hold your peace; walk not on when others stop.
7 Put not off your clothes in the presence of others, nor go out your chamber half dressed.
8 At play and attire, it's good manners to give place to the last comer, and affect not to speak louder than ordinary.
9 Spit not into the fire, nor stoop low before it; neither put your hands into the flames to warm them, nor set your feet upon the fire, especially if there be meat before it.
10 When you sit down, keep your feet firm and even; without putting one on the other or crossing them.
11 Shift not yourself in the sight of others, nor gnaw your nails.
12 Shake not the head, feet, or legs; roll not the eyes; lift not one eyebrow higher than the other, wry not the mouth, and bedew no man's face with your spittle by [approaching too near] him [when] you speak.
13 Kill no vermin, or fleas, lice, ticks, etc. in the sight of others; if you see any filth or thick spittle put your foot dexterously upon it; if it be upon the clothes of your companions, put it off privately, and if it be upon your own clothes, return thanks to him who puts it off behavior or saluting, ought also to be observed in taking of place and sitting down for ceremonies without bounds are troublesome.
14 Turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jog not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean not upon anyone.
15 Keep your nails clean and short, also your hands and teeth clean, yet without showing any great concern for them.
16 Do not puff up the cheeks, loll not out the tongue with the hands, or beard, thrust out the lips, or bite them, or keep the lips too open or too close.
17 Be no flatterer, neither play with any that delight not to be played withal.
18 Read no letter, books, or papers in company, but when there is a necessity for the doing of it, you must ask leave; come not near the books or writtings of another so as to read them unless desired, or give your opinion of them unasked,- also look not nigh when another is writing a letter.
19 Let your countenance be pleasant but in serious matters somewhat grave.
20 The gestures of the body must be suited to the discourse you are upon.
21 Reproach none for the infirmities of nature, nor delight to put them that have in mind of thereof.
22 Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another though he were your enemy.
23 When you see a crime punished, you may be inwardly pleased; but [damaged manuscript] show pity to the suffering offender.
24 [damaged manuscript]
25 Superfluous compliments and all affectation of ceremonies are to be avoided, yet where due they are not to be neglected.
26 In putting off your hat to persons of distinction, as noblemen, justices, churchmen, etc., make a reverence, bowing more or less according to the custom of the better bred, and quality of the persons; among your equals expect not always that they should begin with you first; but to pull off the hat when there is no need is affectation, in the manner of saluting and resaluting in word keep to the most usual custom.
27 'Tis ill manners to bed one more eminent than yourself be covered, as well as not to do it to whom it is due. Likewise he that makes too much haste to put on his hat does not well, yet he ought to put it on at the first, or at most the second time of being asked; now what is herein spoken, of qualification in behavior or saluting ought to be taking place and sitting down for ceremonies without bounds are troublesome.
28 If any one come to speak to you while you are [are] sitting, stand up, though he be your inferior, and when you present seats, let it be to everyone according to his degree.
29 When youmeet with one of greater quality than yourself, stop, and retire, especially if it be at a door or any straight place, to give way for him to pass.
30 In walking the highest place in most countries hand; therefore place yourself on the left of him whom you desire to honor: but if three walk together the middle place is the most honorable; the wall is usally given to the most worthy if two walk together.
31 If anyone far surpasses others, either in age, estate, or merits [and] would give place to a meaner than himself, the same ought not to accept it, s[ave he offer] it above once or twice.
32 To one that is your equal, or not much inferior, you are to give the chief place in your lodging, and he to whom it is offered ought at the first to refuse it, but at the second to accept though not without acknowledging his own unworthiness.
33 They that are in dignity or in office have in all places precedency, but whilst they are young, they ought to respect those that are their equals in birth or other qualities, though they have no public charge.
34 It is good manners to prefer them to whom we speak before ourselves, especially if they be above us, with whom in no sort we ought to begin.
35 Let your discours with men of business be short and comprehensive.
36 Artificers and persons of low degree ought not to use many ceremonies to lords or others of high degree, but respect and highly honor then, and those of high degree ought to treat them with affability and courtesy, without arrogance.
37 In speaking to men of quality do not lean nor look them full in the face, nor approach too near them at left. Keep a full pace from them.
38 In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician if you be not knowing therein.
39 In writing or speaking, give to every person his due title according to his degree and the custom of the place.
40 Strive not with your superior in argument, but always submit your argument to others with modesty.
41 Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it (manuscript damaged ) of arrogance.
42 [damaged manuscript]; and same with a clown and a prince,
43 Do not express joy before one sick in pain, for that contrary passion will aggravate his misery.
44 When a man does all he can, though it succeed not well, blame not him that did it.
45 Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether it ought to be in public or in private, and presently or at some other time; in what terms to do it; and in reproving show no signs of cholor but do it with all sweetness and mildness.
46 Take all admonitions thankfully in what time or place soever given, but afterwards not being culpable take a time and place convenient to let him know it that gave them.
47 Mock not nor jest at any thing of importance. Break no jests that are sharp, biting,- and if you deliver any thing witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing thereat yourself.
48 Where in [wherein] you reprove another be unblameable yourself, -for example is more prevalent than precepts,
49 Use no reproachful language against any one; neither curse nor revile.
50 Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any.
51 Wear not your clothes foul, or ripped, or dusty, but see they be brushed
once every day at least and take heed that you approach not to any uncleanness.
52 In your apparel be modest and endeavor to accommodate nature, rather than to procure admiration; keep to the fashion of your equals, such as are civil and orderly with respect to time and places.
53 Run not in the streets, neither go too slowly, nor with mouth open; go not shaking of arms, nor upon the toes, nor in a dancing [damaged manuscript].
54 Play not the peacock, looking every where about you, to see if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your stockings sit neatly and clothes handsomely.
55 Eat not in the streets, nor in your house, out of season.
56 Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.
57 In walking up and down in a house, only with one in company if he be greater than yourself, at the first give him the right hand and stop not till he does and be not the first that turns, and when you do turn let it be with your face towards him; if he be a man of great quality walk not with him cheek by jowl but somewhat behind him but yet in such a manner that he may easily speak to you.
58 Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for 'tis a sign of a tractable and commendable nature, and in all causes of passion permit reason to govern.
59 Never express anything unbecoming, nor act against the rules before your inferiors.
60 Be not immodest in urging your friends to discover a secret.
61 Utter not base and frivolous things among grave and learned men, nor very difficult questions or subjects among the ignorant, or things hard to be believed; stuff not your discourse with sentences among your betters nor equals.
62 Speak not of doleful things in a time of mirth or at the table; speak not of melancholy things or death and wounds, and if others mention them, change if you can the discourse; tell not your dream, but to your intimate.
63 A man ought not to value himself of his achievements or rare qualities [damaged manuscript] virtue or kindred.
64 Break not a jest where none take pleasure in mirth; laugh not alone, nor at all without occasion; deride no man's misfortune though there seem to be some cause.
65 Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor earnest; scoff at none although they give occasion.
66 Be not froward but friendly and courteous, the first to salute, hear, and answer; and be not pensive when it's a time to converse.
67 Detract not from others, neither be excessive in commanding.
68 Go not thither, where you know not whether you shall be welcome or not; give not advice [without] being asked, and when desired do it briefly.
69 If two contend together take not the part of either unconstrained, and be not obstinate in your own opinion; in things indifferent be of the major side.
70 Reprehend not the imperfections of others,for that belongs to parents, masters, and superiors.
71 Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of others and ask not how they came. What you may speak in secret to your friend, deliver not before others.
72 Speak not in an unknown tongue in company but in your own language and that as those of quality do and not as the vulgar; sublime matters treat seriously-
73 Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly, nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.
74 When another speaks, be attentive yourself; and disturb not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not nor prompt him without desired; interrupt him not, nor answer him till his speech has ended.
75 In the midst of discourse [damaged manuscript] but if you perceive any stop because of [damaged manuscript]; to proceed: If a person of quality comes in while you're conversing, it's handsome to repeat what was said before.
76 While you are talking, point not with your finger at him of whom you discourse, nor approach too near him to whom you talk especially to his face.
77 Treat with men at fit times about business and whisper not in the company of others.
78 Make no comparisons and if any of the company be commended for any brave act of virtue, commend not another for the same.
79 Be not apt to relate news if you know not the truth thereof. In discoursing of things you have heard, name not your author always; a secret discover not. I
80 Be not tedious indiscourse or in reading unless you find the company pleased therewith.
81 Be not curious to know the affairs of others, neither approach those that speak in private.
82 Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.
83 When you deliver a matter do it without passion and with discretion, however mean the person be you do it to.
84 When your superiors talk to anybody neither speak nor laugh.
85 In company of those of higher quality than yourself, speak not 'til you are asked a question, then stand upright, put off your hat and answer in few words.
86 In disputes, be not so desirous to overcome as not to give liberty to one to deliver his opinion and submit to the judgment of the major part, specially if they are judges of the dispute.
87 [damaged manuscript] as becomes a man grave, settled, and attentive [damaged manuscript] [predict not at every turn what others say.
88 Be not diverse in discourse; make not many digressions; nor repeat often the same manner of discourse.
89 Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.
90 Being set at meat scratch not, neither spit, cough, or blow your nose except there's a necessity for it.
91 Make no show of taking great delight in your the table; neither find great delight in your victuals; feed not with greediness; eat your bread with a knife; lean not on the table; neither find fault with what you eat.
92 Take no salt or cut bread with your knife greasy.
93 Entertaining a anyone at table it is decent to present him with meat; undertake not to help others desired by the master.
94 If you soak bread in the sauce, let it be no more than what you put in your mouth at a time and blow not your broth at table; let it stay till it cools of itself.
95 Put not your meat to your mouth with your knife in your hand; neither spit forth the stones of any fruit pie upon a dish nor cast anything under the table.
96 It's unbecoming to heap much to one's meat keep your fingers clean; when foul wipe them on a corner of your table napkin.
97 Put not another bite into your mouth till the former be swallow; let not your morsels be too big.
98 Drink not nor talk with your mouth full; neither gaze about you while you are a drinking.
99 Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hastily. Before and after drinking wipe your lips; breathe not then or ever with too great a noise, for it is an evil.
100 Cleanse not your teeth with the tablecloth, napkin, fork, or knife; but if others do it, let it be done without a peep to them.
101 Rinse not your mouth in the presence of others.
102 It is out of use to call upon the company often to eat; nor need you drink to others every time you drink.
103 In company of your betters be not [damaged manuscript] than they are; lay not your arm but [damaged manuscript].
104 It belongs to the chiefest in company to unfold his napkin and fall to meat first; but he ought then to begin in time and to dispatch with dexterity that the slowest may have time allowed him.
105 Be not angry at table whatever happens and if you have reason to be so, show it not but on a cheerful countenance especially if there be strangers, for good humor makes one dish of meat and whey.
106 Set not yourself at the upper of the table but if it be your due, or that the master of the house will have it so, contend not, lest you should trouble the company.
107 If others talk at table be attentive but talk not with meat in your mouth.
108 When you speak of God or his Attributes, let it be seriously; reverence, honor and obey your natural parents although they be poor.
109 Let your recreations be manful not sinful.
110 Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
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The U. S. Constitution
